Turns Out Maple Syrup is Anticarcinogenic
By Amelia Kinney
Darker coloured syrup is suggested as healthier than lightly coloured syrup.
Maple syrup is a classic natural sweetener that has been making a comeback recently as
an alternative to refined sugar.
The syrup is tapped from different species of maple trees, with the Canadian province
of Quebec being a top producer.
Along with a rich and complex flavor, maple syrup offers an abundance of amino acids,
manganese and zinc, as well as phenolic compounds, including lignans and coumarin.
A new study called �Inhibitory effect of maple syrup on the cell growth and invasion
of human colorectal cancer cells� was guided by Dr. Tetsushi Yamamoto, a molecular and
cell biologist from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Kindai University in Osaka, Japan.
The research evaluated the effect of three different types of maple syrup.
The main objective was to identify if maple syrup could be used as a phytomedicine within
cancer treatment.
Dr. Yamamoto and his research team classified the different types of maple syrup according
to colour, as well as cell proliferation, and migration and invasion capability for
colorectal cell cancer (CRC).
Results showed that CRC cells administered maple syrup showed lower rates of carcinogenic
cells when compared with cells administered only sucrose.
Maple trees tapped with tin collection buckets.
Credit: Pixabay Additionally, the study suggests that maple
syrup should not only be classified by its sugar content, but also according to its nutritional
and physiochemical components.
This study showed that maple syrup, particularly when coloured darker, might be suitable as
a phytomedicine, which may offer a more gentle alternative to traditional chemotherapy.
This outstanding revelation is in contrast to other studies, which support the idea that
sugar perpetuates cancer and other chronic diseases.
However, this disparity might concern diverse types of sugar, including sucrose, fructose
and glucose.
Also, sugar behaves differently when consumed in diverse nutritional contexts.
In this context, researchers experimented with different sucrose concentrations, ranging
from 0.1% to 10%.
Results showed that only maple syrup with a 10% concentration of sucrose inhibited colorectal
cancer cell growth.
The study explained that this is because higher concentrations might have cytotoxic effects
due to high osmotic pressure.
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